Andy Murray against B Becker: it sounds like a clash of grass-court giants.

On the ball: Andy Murray survived a second-set scare before winning the tie-break to beat Benjamin Becker in straight sets and progress to semi-finals of the Aegon Championships at Queen's Club on Friday eveningPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

But the Becker on show at Queen’s Club on Friday was Benjamin rather than Boris, and the first half of the match had the feel of a glorified training exercise as Murray eased into the semi-finals of the Aegon Championships by a 6-4, 7-6 margin.

Anyone walking up Palliser Road might have been surprised to learn that there was a sporting event going on behind the fence, so quiet were the 6,500 spectators on centre court. But then this is always a hard crowd to impress.

Most of them probably earn more than Becker does, drawn as they are from the cream of Kensington and Chelsea’s smart set.

To earn a strong hand of applause, or even a cheer or two, you would probably have to hit a perfect “hot-dog” winner from between your legs. Murray resorted to a similar ploy – the “tweener” – when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga here in the final two years ago.

Both those men are still in this event, along with Marin Cilic and the Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt, who pulled off the shock of the tournament on Friday when he ousted world No 8 Juan Martin del Potro in three sets.

Becker – the Benjamin variety – was never likely to be listed among the strongest contenders. He is the world No 105, and until the Nottingham Challenger last week had lost in the first round of 10 consecutive events.

But grass seems to stimulate him, as it did his more famous namesake. He had seen off some good players on his way to Friday’s match: Bernard Tomic, Lukas Rosol, and Alexandr Dolgopolov.

In the first set, Becker appeared flummoxed by the strong wind bowling straight down the court, rather as Marinko Matosevic had been in Murray’s second match on Thursday. His unforced error count was into double figures by the end of the third game.

At the end of the set, Becker appeared to be on the point of pulling out. He had treatment on his right shoulder, which the trainer manipulated as he lay down on the court.

But he got up and convinced himself that the match was still alive. Suddenly he started brutalising the ball as if it had personally insulted him.

“I haven’t played for a month,” said Murray afterwards, “so there’s going to be moments where your level drops a little bit. That’s happened in the last couple of matches.

"So with playing matches and getting match tight I’ll avoid those slip-ups. But it’s important to sort of go through them and come out the other side of them with a win, and I managed to do that the last couple of days.”

There was a moment when the old Murray might have gone into a flat spin. Both men were struggling when they served into the wind, and he was broken midway through the second set to concede a 2-4 lead.

It was a galling setback, especially given the gap between the two players’ rankings, but he gathered himself and broke Becker back immediately with a couple of punishing forehands.

Murray’s ability to manage matches – and, crucially, to manage his own emotions – has improved enormously since Ivan Lendl joined his coaching team.

And the effect seems only to be magnified when Lendl is there in person at the side of the court, as he was on Friday. The chuntering and the gesticulations tail away dramatically.

Murray remained businesslike through the decisive tie-break, which he effectively wrapped up by taking a 6-0 lead at the change of ends.

A few points later, he became the only man to reach the semi-finals without dropping a set. His opponent on Saturday will be Tsonga, who subdued American Denis Kudla without fuss.

The surprise victory of the day was Hewitt’s. He might be a former Wimbledon champion, but he has not beaten anyone ranked as high as Del Potro for three years, dating back to his victory over Roger Federer in the Halle final of 2010.

Hewitt is now one of the few touring professionals who combines childcare with his day job. At the conclusion of the match we saw a charming court invasion from his four-year-old, a mop-haired blond boy named Cruz Lleyton Hewitt.

“It’s second nature now,” said Hewitt senior, when asked about the challenge of balancing the different parts of his life.

Meanwhile, at the Aegon Nottingham Challenge, Elena Baltacha continued her successful run by beating Barbara Zahlavova-Strycova to move into the semi-finals.